This book is stunning.

When I initially saw this book on Amazon I wondered if it was worthwhile getting it because we already have a few books that cover life cycles but when it arrived I was immediately impressed. The pictures and layout of each page is gorgeous and they cover a HUGE range of life cycles. HUGE! They have included life cycles on topics that I never thought of as being life cycles. This book (DK Life Cycles) is 100% worth it.

When I say it covers a HUGE range of life cycles I really am not exaggerating.  They split the book into 4 subsections – Space, Earth, Plants and Fungi and finally Animals.  I must state that it does talk about the Big Bang as the start of the universe and it talks about evolution (I know some people try and avoid these so I want to be clear that it is included).

Space.  My son loves space and this was a different way to look at it. I never would have thought of talking about a star or a comet as having a life cycle but then they do form and they do eventually disappear. 

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Earth.  I must admit I love that this section has been included because I often find it difficult to obtain books which deal with these topics in an interesting manner. They have included Rocks, Mountains, Water, Tornados, River, Icebergs and more.  I am just so thrilled that these pages have been written and illustrated in this way because it makes them more accessible to the kids and I think more interesting when you think that an Iceberg or Tornado has its own life cycle.

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Oh and I must include there is a life cycle of an Amoeba. My daughter was just reading about Amoeba in her Science so she loved that it was included here.

Then onto Plants and Fungi.  Now a personal confession.  Both of my kids find Biology fascinating but they are not that keen on plant biology and I often search for resources to make plant biology a bit more interesting and I normally end up with nothing. But this section is brilliant. Such a good way at introducing a wide range of plants in an appealing manner. They include – mushrooms, trees and flowers here and give a few different examples for the trees and flowers. (The plant section is 18 pages long).

And then Animals.  As expected the animal section is the longest but they do a very impressive job of including all the animals you would expect and then some totally unexpected gems (like the two dinosaurs – thankyou to whoever thought of including this). Some of our favourite pages have been – Octopus, Earthworm, Lizard, Swallow, Bat and the Naked mole-rat.  But they do also have the typical ones likes.  I counted 29 different animal life cycles.

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We LOVE this book.  Really LOVE it.  My son has already spent hours reading it and I know he will go back through the pages and reread them multiple times.  

Everything about this book has impressed us.  The wide range that they have included, they stunning illustrations and they way the have linked in facts.  It really has been well thought out.  We highly recommend this book.

For those of you who want Amazon links here is the link for the Book – Life Cycles: Everything from Start to Finish

Admin Bit.  I found this book while I was searching for educational books for my son.  I then contacted DK and asked if they had any Press copies and they kindly sent us one.  The fact that we love this book so much is nothing to do with the fact that we were given our copy. We love this book because it is stunning and is the perfect book for my son. 

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